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New Hero: Cassia

After shattering the Worldstone, the young Amazon Cassia had changed. She had seen hatred, terror, and destruction firsthand. If the Askari were to survive the coming darkness, they needed an army. She would begin their training immediately.

Hurl a javelin that damages the first enemy hit, and splits into two lightning bolts that deal damage to enemies in their paths.

Blinding Light (W)

After 0.5 seconds, Blind enemies in the target area for 2 seconds.

Passive: Cassia deals 15% increased damage to Blinded targets.

Fend (E)

Charge at an enemy and on arrival channel for 1.5 seconds, damaging enemies in front of Cassia every 0.25 seconds.

Deals 50% reduced damage to non-Heroes.

Heroic Abilities

Ball Lightning (R)

Throw a ball of lightning at an enemy Hero that bounces up to 6 times between nearby enemy Heroes and Cassia, damaging enemies hit.

Valkyrie (R)

Summon a Valkyrie that rushes to Cassia after 0.75 seconds, pulling and damaging the first enemy Hero hit and stunning them for 0.5 seconds at the end of her rush.

The Valkyrie knocks back all other enemy Heroes in her way.

User Interface

Score and Stats Screen

Varian will now display Damage Taken stats in the Score and Stats screens.

Abathur will now display Healing Done in the Score and Stats screens.

Art

The base and third variations of Nova's Novazon skin have received visual updates.

Shop

New Bundles

Pirate Queen Cassia Bundle - Available until 4/18

Teamwork Bundle - Available until 4/25

Ultimate Teamwork Bundle - Available until 4/25

Removed Bundles

Stars of War Bundle

Ultimate Stars of War Bundle

New Hero

Cassia has been added to the in-game Shop

New Skins

Pirate Queen Cassia

Master Cassia

Heroes

Assassin

The Butcher

Abilities

Fresh Meat (Trait)

Hold ALT and click the Fresh Meat Ability icon to notify allies of The Butcher's current number of Meat stacks.

Warrior

E.T.C.

Stats

Health reduced from 2428 to 2100

Health Regeneration reduced from 5.06 to 4.37

Abilities

Rockstar (Trait)

Redesigned:

Instead of increasing nearby allies' Basic Attack speeds, Rockstar now grants E.T.C. 20 Armor for 2 seconds when he uses a Basic or Heroic Ability. This effect does not stack with itself.

Talents

Level 1

Guitar Hero (E)

Healing gained from Basic Attacks increased from 35% to 40%.

No longer increases Attack Speed.

Level 7

Echo Pedal (Passive)

Damage reduced from 29 to 15.

Damage bonus against Minions and Mercenaries increased from 75% to 250%.

Level 16

Show Stopper (Q)

Armor reduced from 25 to 15.

Developer Comment: These changes to E.T.C. are a continuation of our attempt to align Warriors with a “big picture” role, so that we can continue to see a variety of them regardless of who’s really strong at the moment. Alongside a lot of specialization, we need a couple generalist Warriors, and we think E.T.C. (as well as Muradin) should fill that role. They should always be a safe pick for your team because they fit into every team composition or battleground, but may be outperformed by the specialized Warriors in their ideal situations. We found that having Attack Speed on his Trait pointed him toward Basic Attack teams and maps like Battlefield of Eternity, where sustained damage was important. Instead, we’ve decided to add general Armor, but wanted to make sure that it still had that fun “bard” style gameplay where playing optimally includes spreading out abilities. We’ve updated Show Stopper to provide less Armor, because stacking Armor makes every point more and more valuable. Lastly, we’ve reduced Echo Pedal’s damage against non-Minions and Mercenaries so that it’s the obvious pick when you need wave clear, but Hammer-On and Pinball Wizard are better during a team fight.

Bug Fixes

Battlegrounds

Towers of Doom – The Headless Horseman boss Mercenary will no longer have his Basic Attack damage reduced by Armor.

Warhead Junction – Fixed an issue that caused queued commands to be cleared after casting a Nuke.

Heroes

Probius - Fixed an issue that caused the Turbo Charged talent to grant too much movement speed during Worker Rush.

Varian – The sound effect associated with the Iron Forge Banner will no longer play globally.

Raynor – Fixed an issue with the Relentless Leader talent causing it to fail to grant the passive cooldown reduction.

Rexxar – Misha will now have a reduced death timer in Arena mode Heroes Brawls.

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We present our ninth Heroes of the Storm Meta Tier List for the Garrosh patch of August 2017.
Our ninth Heroes of the Storm Meta Tier List for the month of August 2017 is here!

Welcome to Icy Veins's Meta Tier List for the Garrosh patch. The goal if of this list is to try and detail game's current metagame state. The prime goal of such lists is to inform players regarding popular and trending team composition drafting strategies (i.e. the drafting metagame). Although tier listings are generally the product of balance, many factors come into play when discussing the relative perceived strengths of heroes, including player regions, maps, play style, skill level, and, of course, personal perception. As such, any tier list—including this very one—should never be interpreted as gospel, but rather, as a guide to better grasp what to expect with regards to typical drafting experiences. One useful application of such lists is to allow you know which heroes to look out for in terms of practice and counterplay, ultimately improving your knowledge of the game.

Using the list
As stated above, tier lists are easy to mistake for gospel. As new strategies are discovered and experimented with, so changes the perception of the relative strengths of each hero. Tier lists still prove to be useful as a snapshot of player expectations in terms of drafting. Although it is generally considered preferable to focus on high tier heroes (Prime and Core tiers), it is important to note that Heroes of the Storm's wild character and map designs make it so that any given hero's tier position is prone to fluctuate depending on the situation at hand.
One classic example of such is that of Kerrigan on the Infernal Shrines map. Although we currently judge her to be a mid-tier hero, her drafting priority shoots up to first-pick or first-ban material on this specific map due to the nature of its objective. Certain heroes also synergise so well with each other that the sole fact of having the opportunity of drafting them together is generally enough to increase their potential. Tassadar and Tracer, for instance, are generally nightmarish to deal with for many. There are too many examples of these interactions to reasonably produce here, but we invite you to consult our guides to know exactly where and when each hero shines. The guides have been linked in the lists below for your convenience - just click any of the hero names to access them.
A ↑ next to a hero's name means its tier list position has increased since the previous month whereas a ↓ means just the opposite. Additionally, a + or - sign indicates short-to-medium term predictions (which is to say, about a month) for tier increase(s) or decrease(s), respectively. These are often updated after significant balance patches and/or when clear trends are emerging.
If you're newer to the game, also consider visiting our glossary for a comprehensive list of discrete Heroes of the Storm terms.

Prime Tier
Warrior
Assassin
Support
Specialist
Anub'arak
Genji
Uther
-
Stitches↑
Greymane↑
Tassadar↑
Malthael
Prime tier heroes are considered to be extremely strong in all situations, and show no obvious weakness. They are very often banned or picked right away, as they generally dictate the pace of most matches.

Core Tier
Warrior
Assassin
Support
Specialist
Arthas
Falstad
Auriel
Nazeebo
Dehaka
Gul'dan-
Rehgar
Sylvanas
Diablo+
Li-Ming
Stukov
Xul↑
E.T.C.↑
The Butcher↑
Garrosh (new!)
Valla
Sonya
Zeratul
Varian (Tank)
Core tier heroes are strong in a wide variety of situations and have few counter-picking possibility. They should form the core of your team, and be picked after Prime Tier heroes have been distributed.

Bottom Tier
The Lost Vikings
Bottom tier Heroes are deemed to be either considerably weaker than the majority of other Heroes, or much more challenging to play properly. Although they may situationally shine, these Heroes are generally avoided by most players.

Metagame assessment
Greetings. Regulars may have noticed that the changes featured in this month's list have been more aggressive than usual. In essence, I feel like a clear metagame is finally begin to emerge after a slew of important changes, making it easier for me to pinpoint notable trends. And so, the result is a volatile tier list that should be extremely stable next month. Shall we begin?
I like Garrosh quite a bit, and I can't help but feel that the combined novelty and high skill cap skew his win rates towards the bottom of the roster. Case in point: his Master level win rates are nearly 12% higher than his Bronze level win rates. This is a case of Medivh all over again; however, whereas both Garrosh and Medivh did start at 30-something-percent win rates, Garrosh has been steadily climbing over the week. Both Diablo and Stitches are currently very popular picks, and Garrosh provides similar utility through his Groundbreaker + Wrecking Ball combo. Talents to watch out for are undoubtedly Warbreaker (reduced cooldown on Groundbreaker, level 1) and Intimidation (40% reduced attack speed on targets hit by Groundbreaker, level 7), which allow Garrosh to neuter basic attack reliant heroes much earlier than other heroes can. Into the Fray (can use Wrecking Ball on allies once every 30 seconds, level 7) is also an interesting one as it gives Garrosh his own version of Cleanse and the ability to say 'hey, you're mispositioned, stop it', which should come in handy whenever an ally is, well, not standing where they should be. It also breaks Lamb to the Slaughter on top of a few other nasty heroic abilities, which is great.
Stitches has finally ascended to godhood, and although I was slow to give him a seat in the core tier, repeated high level hero league bans and a high amount of tournament play speak for themselves. As stated last month, the Slam build remains an easy way of topping the damage charts all while being difficult to kill. Gorge has also seen an upsurge in popularity, and particularly on maps where combat tends to happen close by fortifications, such as Dragon Shire, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Towers of Doom, et cetera. Couple this with Falstad's Mighty Gust, and you have a game winning combo that isn't all that difficult to pull off.
I don't have much to say about Greymane that isn't self-obvious; Cursed Bullet is a great choice in a meta where healthy tanks are popular, though Go for the Throat is also re-emerging for blowup team compositions, thanks to its reliable damage and gap closing feature, on top of its ability to reset.
To shoehorn last month's tier list again, I made a snarky comment about Tassadar always being either too strong or too weak. Right now, he enables two borderline heroes–Illidan and Tracer–on top of providing flexible heroic ability choices for both more defensive and blowout team compositions. His versatility just makes him never feel like a bad pick, and Oracle keeps the Zeratuls at bay as a bonus.
E.T.C. is this month's surprise as players sift through forgotten heroes to solo tank, provide potential mapwide mobility through Stage Dive, and just generally provide reliable crowd control. You'll note a sore lack of interruption from a lot of high tier picks as well, making Mosh Pit about as good as it'll get.
We haven't seen The Butcher be more than a one trick for nearly two years now, but the brute is back in force, thanks for buffs several players have misinterpreted as nerfs. I suspect, however, that some of his newfound success may be due to players having some difficulty adapting to his new gank-heavy playstyle and generally counterpicking him. Shall the Brightwings, Cassias, and Li Lis of the world rise up to the challenge?
Xul has continued to perform well, and although he is the second least popular core tier hero (right behind Zeratul), he will keep on being effective on Blackheart's Bay, Dragon Shire, Gardens of Terror, Infernal Shrines, and Towers of Doom simply due to the importance of having a strong split pusher on these maps. Just make sure you go for Skeletal Mages, which tend to block a lot of those abilities strong tanks currently rely upon to get picks, on top of being generally disruptive.

Lost Cavern is a single-lane battleground that has been chosen for this week's brawl! Complete three matches to earn a Loot Chest.
Blizzard (Source)
This week’s brawl is Lost Cavern! It’s all-out mayhem on our single-lane battleground – Lost Cavern. Queue up, choose your Hero, and try to best to bring down the enemy Core!

Rules:
Shuffle pick - Choose from one of three Heroes before entering the battle.
Standard play - no talent or level restrictions.
The first team to destroy the enemy Core wins!
Rewards:
Complete three matches of Lost Cavern to earn a Loot Chest!
Find out more about the Heroes Brawl game mode on our Heroes Brawl site; and as always, you can find more information on this week’s Brawl by clicking the Brawl Info button at the bottom of the play screen when preparing to queue for the Brawl game mode.

It's time to get hyped! Gamescom 2017 is just over a week away and even though Blizzard hasn't shared the full schedule yet, we'll get to see Team expert battling it out against Team Liquid on August 23 from 14:00 to 15:30 CEST.
Both teams played against each other during Western Clash and Team expert easily defeated Team Liquid with a final score of 3:0. Will they be able to take revenge? Another interesting match is a YouTuber clash between Team ApeCrime & Team PietSmiet. Stay tuned for a full schedule.
Blizzard (Source)
Whether you’re an esports fanatic or just love live MOBA action, you’ll definitely want to catch our two epic show matches either in person or via live stream.
Team expert vs. Team Liquid
Some of the very best players in the world will be battling it out at gamescom, as Team Liquid and Team expert face off on Wednesday, August 23 from 14:00 to 15:30 CEST.

Team expert
Based in Germany, Team expert is known for executing unique drafts and utilizing niche heroes. Their roster is well accustomed to success—they finished second in the recent 2017 HGC Western Clash, and are currently ranked number two in the HGC Europe standings.

Team Liquid
Team Liquid boasts the longest running five-player roster in the HGC, and it just so happens that four of them are German! They’re sure to have plenty of local support at gamescom, which may be just what they need after recent battles with Team Expert. Their Heroes Showdown opponents knocked them out of the HGC Western Clash earlier this month. Can they take revenge in Cologne?

Team ApeCrime vs. Team PietSmiet
Get ready for the most legendary YouTuber clash this year! German music and comedy team ApeCrime will challenge gaming personalities PietSmiet on Friday, August 25 from 11:45 to 13:15. Be sure to follow along and find out who’ll be victorious in this battle of the titans.
Team ApeCrime
With more than five million subscribers over two channels on YouTube, ApeCrime is sure to have their fair share of fans in the gamescom crowd! Well known for their awesome music and hilarious videos, Cengiz Dogrul, Andre Schiebler, and Jan-Christoph Meyer will offer some top-notch entertainment on stage. With Michael ‘KendricSwissh’ Kratzel and Walter ‘MFPallytime’ Hopkins rounding out their team, they’re sure to bring a few surprises to the Nexus.
Team PietSmiet
PietSmiet has been producing gaming-related content since 2011, including “Let’s Play” videos, “Best Of” roundups, and their “Let’s Ask” series. More than two and half million fans follow their channels on YouTube, and they’re sure to earn a few more at gamescom. Chris Stachelhaus, Jonathan Apelt, and Sebastian Lenßen will be joined by esports expert Derek ‘DunkTrain’ Arabian and “Tryhard for Good” streamer Kevin ‘Kev1n’ Rubiszewski.